The United Nation has symbolically declared the world’s 7-billionth human on October 31, 2011. And to take the honours was the little girl Nargis Yadav born in a small rural clinic in north India in the State of Uttar Pradesh, which is the most populated in India. While roughly 4.5 billion people have been added to the world population in just the last 60 years, according to United Nations estimates, the U.N.-declared landmark of 7 billion humans underscores the challenges faced by the global community to address the environmental and social impacts that continued population growth will have. While individual countries will have to address this concern, the fact that the UN has chosen India to showcase the 7-billionth human only underscores the bigger problem and challenge for India, China and other developing countries. At the outset it must be understood that the problem is not so much about population growth but the real concern should be to find a right balance between growth and sustainability.
Although India has been recognized as the first country in the world to officially adopt a family planning program in 1952, serious thinking about population growth was reflected only through the subsequent five year plans. Even then policy makers failed to grasp the statistics behind the booming numbers. One of the measures adopted to curb population growth was in the nature of financial incentives in the form of cash awards for undergoing sterilisation; extensive use of sterilization for both males and females. Policy makers had always put too much attention into meeting targets rather than on basic welfare measures such as education and economic development as levers to restrict the growth of population. Such a lopsided strategy was bound to fail because adoption of family planning in India was never properly explained in terms of the various socio-cultural and economic factors. For instance the low age of marriage particularly in rural India contributed to high fertility. Further owing to prevalence of illiteracy, low status of women, deep rooted religious beliefs and customs besides the economic advantages of having a large size family has led to a mindset which is not amenable to the government’s family planning programs.
Only in the last few years a broader perspective was adopted in the form of family welfare programs. The MS Swaminathan Expert Group on National Population Policy had called for the implementation of Minimum Needs Program. This includes the universalization of primary education, abolition of child labour, priority to primary health care and food-clothing-shelter programs. Addressing global population growth is therefore not the same thing as ‘controlling population’. The latter is essentially about numbers and we cannot humanly stop population from growing. What we should therefore focus on is on the welfare aspect of our population such as human development. Recently, the UN released its Human Development Index (HDI) report where India ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in terms of the HDI, which assesses long-term progress in health, education and income indicators. If countries and communities can give special emphasis on the HDI, the problem of population growth should not become such a big issue. And one of the focus areas should be on improving the overall condition of our womenfolk. This will include proper education, healthcare, proper sanitation, access to clean drinking water, livelihood options etc.
Although India has been recognized as the first country in the world to officially adopt a family planning program in 1952, serious thinking about population growth was reflected only through the subsequent five year plans. Even then policy makers failed to grasp the statistics behind the booming numbers. One of the measures adopted to curb population growth was in the nature of financial incentives in the form of cash awards for undergoing sterilisation; extensive use of sterilization for both males and females. Policy makers had always put too much attention into meeting targets rather than on basic welfare measures such as education and economic development as levers to restrict the growth of population. Such a lopsided strategy was bound to fail because adoption of family planning in India was never properly explained in terms of the various socio-cultural and economic factors. For instance the low age of marriage particularly in rural India contributed to high fertility. Further owing to prevalence of illiteracy, low status of women, deep rooted religious beliefs and customs besides the economic advantages of having a large size family has led to a mindset which is not amenable to the government’s family planning programs.
Only in the last few years a broader perspective was adopted in the form of family welfare programs. The MS Swaminathan Expert Group on National Population Policy had called for the implementation of Minimum Needs Program. This includes the universalization of primary education, abolition of child labour, priority to primary health care and food-clothing-shelter programs. Addressing global population growth is therefore not the same thing as ‘controlling population’. The latter is essentially about numbers and we cannot humanly stop population from growing. What we should therefore focus on is on the welfare aspect of our population such as human development. Recently, the UN released its Human Development Index (HDI) report where India ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in terms of the HDI, which assesses long-term progress in health, education and income indicators. If countries and communities can give special emphasis on the HDI, the problem of population growth should not become such a big issue. And one of the focus areas should be on improving the overall condition of our womenfolk. This will include proper education, healthcare, proper sanitation, access to clean drinking water, livelihood options etc.
